Senator Elijah Reichlin-Melnick celebrates LGBTQ+ history month with a huge boost for Rockland Pride Center

NEW CITY, NY - Senator Elijah Reichlin-Melnick presented the Rockland Pride Center with a check for $50,000 from the state budget Wednesday afternoon to support the center’s youth programs. A small ceremony was held at the center to celebrate the impact the funds will have on supporting Rockland’s LGBTQ+ youth. The ceremony also acknowledged and celebrated LGBTQ+ history month during the month of October.

"Senator Reichlin-Melnick is investing in people power at the Rockland County Pride Center,” said Brooke Malloy, Executive Director of the Rockland County Pride Center. “This funding will support Rockland Pride's LGBTQ+ Youth Program, which helps young people meet rejection and violence with resilience. Young people who become part of the Pride Center family through the Youth Program are graduating high school, enrolling in college, making healthy choices, and advocating for their rights at school. This funding also supports Rockland Pride's work with the Latino/a/e LGBTQ+ communities who reach out for help accessing medical care, legal services, housing and more. The Senator recognizes that Pride Center staff are the key to making these
life-saving outcomes possible."

Senator Reichlin-Melnick secured the funds in the 2021 New York State budget. The funds come in the form of a grant of $50,000 from the NYS Department of Health supporting the salary of the Director of Youth & Young Adult Services and the Coordinator of Latinx Services. Rockland Pride’s LGBTQ+ Youth Program provides a web of community care and healing that centers the needs of the most vulnerable community members, namely Black and Latin and Transgender and Non-Binary youth. This space is the first of its kind in Rockland County.

State Senator Elijah Reichlin-Melnick (D-Rockland/Westchester) said, “It is my honor to bring this funding home for the Rockland County Pride Center. Executive Director Brooke Malloy and her team at the Pride Center do incredible work supporting the LGBTQ+ community in Rockland County - young and old - and I am proud to be able to use my position in Albany to help fund that work. This critical funding will help LGBTQ+ youth in Rockland find their voice and access the supports they need for their health and well-being.”